Category: VET

Private education and training is the preferred choice of more than 50 per cent of students across Australia. It is highly innovative and responsive to the needs of industry. More than 2.2 million students choose to complete study or training with private providers in Australia.

The Student Choice Counts campaign is mobilising the community of students, employees and supporters of the private education and training sector against any policy change to limit student choice and undermine the viability of an important and competitive industry.

The risks:

Liberal and National parties and the ALP have announced major reviews and consultations into training and higher education. ACPET supports these measures but we need to make sure that outcomes do not penalise current or future students. Students must come first.

ALP policy announced during the election campaign would see an arbitrary cap on HELP training student loans, jeopardising student choice and affordability.

The ALP has also strongly indicated its intent to direct at least 70 per cent of funding to Government-owned TAFEs, stripping students of their right to study at their college of choice. TAFE alone cannot deliver the range of courses, to the number of students, in metropolitan, regional and rural locations across the country.

We support effective requirements to ensure only high quality providers can deliver public funded training.

24 June 2016 | Tertiary students studying at private higher education institutions are being unfairly and harshly penalised for their choice, according to the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET). ACPET CEO Rod Camm said students choosing private higher education providers were charged a 25 per cent fee payable on their student loans and denied access to Commonwealth Supported Places (CSPs). ACPET is calling for both the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition to remove the 25 per cent fee payable on loans obtained through FEE-HELP which does not apply to university students accessing HECS-HELP. This reform would not only support greater student choice but address a fundamental inequity that has financially penalised some students simply because of their choice of higher education provider. This fee is simply indefensible….[ READ MORE ]….

23 June 2016 | Students from disadvantaged backgrounds risk being shut out of training under policy announced by the Australian Labor Party, according to the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET). ACPET CEO Rod Camm said that students whose only access to diploma level training was through student loans faced being shut out once more if proposed arbitrary caps on loan amounts were introduced. ACPET says that under Labor’s proposed $8,000 cap on training loans, many students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be turned away from training because they cannot afford to pay up-front fees. Camm says that ACPET members are concerned that, for many disadvantaged students, the threat this election is not just to choice, but their ability to access any sort of diploma level training at all….[READ MORE]….

17 June 2016 | The training choice of 2.2 million Australian students is at risk from outdated and ill-informed rhetoric from the Greens. The Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) CEO Rod Camm said private training providers were an absolutely essential component of Australia’s training sector and the Green’s policy to stop all government funding to private providers posed enormous risk. The Australian training sector would collapse if private training providers were removed from the sector, he said….[ READ MORE]….

16 June 2016 | Australia needs a diverse higher education and training sector with quality private providers delivering choice and quality outcomes for students and employers. Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) CEO Rod Camm said student access to government funded training through quality private training providers was critical to meeting the future skill needs of Australia’s economy. “Private training has matured over the past 20 years and is the choice of employers and more than 2.2 million, or 57 per cent of Australian students, every year,” Mr Camm said. “Private training delivers strong job placement outcomes and delivers more flexible training options.”….[ READ MORE ]….

15 June 2016 | Private training providers have expressed their surprise and concern at yesterday’s Australian Labor Party (ALP) policy announcement to provide pre-apprenticeship training for 10,000 young people and to assist retrenched workers get their trade skills formally recognised. Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) CEO Rod Camm said that while improving pathways into apprenticeships was an important element in boosting the nation’s trade skills and providing real jobs, ACPET had considerable concerns about what the policy was really trying to do. “Continuing economic uncertainty and government training cuts have reduced the opportunities especially for our young job seekers” he said. “While the policy intent is supported, the ALP has missed an ideal opportunity to drive home the employment outcomes from this program by using private sector training providers. Put simply, private colleges have a proven ability to provide superior employment outcomes for job seekers and the ALP’s decision to only allocate funding to Government-run providers is a serious limitation.”….[ READ MORE ]….

9 June 2016 | Flexible learning, quality study programs and industry standard training are at risk for more than 2.2 million Australian students studying with private higher education and training providers each year. Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) Chief Executive Officer Rod Camm said private providers were an essential element of Australia’s higher education and training sector, offering students a wide choice of courses, flexible delivery options and access to industry professionals. “There are countless examples of how our members are meeting demand from Australia’s students and employers, right across the country,” he said….[ READ MORE ]….

8 June 2016 | Private training providers support the Australian Labor Party’s policy announcement to boost apprenticeship numbers if it wins the upcoming federal election. Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) CEO Rod Camm said apprenticeships and traineeships were key elements in providing jobs and skills, particularly for young people. “A combination of subdued economic circumstances and government training cuts have produced decade low levels of commencements which is reflected in the high unemployment levels amongst young job seekers,” he said. “Harnessing the government’s infrastructure program to boost apprenticeships and traineeships is an important step in boosting opportunities for those seeking a trade career.”….[ READ MORE ]….

27 May 2016 | Australia’s 2.2 million private education and training students are being urged to stand up for their right to choice during the Federal Election campaign. The Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET), the national industry association for independent providers of post-compulsory education and training, is mobilising member, employer and student networks to address policy changes that would limit student choice and undermine the viability of a competitive industry. ACPET Chief Executive Officer Rod Camm said private education and training in Australia delivered jobs and growth, and provided nationally accredited and portable qualifications that delivered massive outcomes for the economy. However, the sector is under threat from reactionary policy changes that would punish both students and good quality private providers. “Policy announcements including an intention to direct the vast majority of vocational training funding to Government-run TAFEs and an arbitrary $8,000 cap on Help loans will strip students of their right to study at their college of choice,” Mr Camm said. “Suggestions that at least 70 per cent of funding will go to a Government-owned provider and that government will choose the courses that will be funded, and at what price, can only lead to another major public policy failure….[ READ MORE ]….

24 May 2016 | Students and industry would be the big losers under a Greens Party policy to lock out all private training providers from vocational education and training. Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) CEO Rod Camm said the proposal put forward by the Greens would be a disaster taking away students’ right to choose their training provider and their preferred course, whilst unfairly punishing high quality private training providers right across Australia. “This type of policy is exactly what ACPET is urging all parties to avoid this election. Students should be able to choose exactly where and what they want to study,” he said….[ READ MORE ]….

6 May 2016 | The Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) has today warned that good quality training providers will be the victims of Labor’s unfair training loan caps, announced in Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s budget reply speech overnight. ACPET CEO Rod Camm has today questioned how such arbitrary change could be fair on students, and warned that a government imposed price of $8000, with no reference to market forces, would punish good quality private training providers and put thousands of jobs in the private training sector at risk….[ READ MORE ]….

TAFE Directors Australia (TDA – the body representing Australia’s public TAFE institutes) has issued a series of policy position papers that have been developed to steer the direction of policy affecting TAFE and the VET sector.

Policy Paper 1 – TAFE: a national asset for Australia’s economic and social prosperity

Policy Paper 2 – Quality is the hallmark of a well-regulated VET system

TAFE Directors Australia (TDA – the body representing Australia’s public TAFE institutes) has issued a series of policy position papers that have been developed to steer the direction of policy affecting TAFE and the VET sector.

Policy Paper 1 – TAFE: a national asset for Australia’s economic and social prosperity

Policy Paper 2 – Quality is the hallmark of a well-regulated VET system

A number of unscrupulous private colleges have taken advantage of the system, with some colleges referred to police and ASIC, after thousands of students did not complete courses and were left with large debts or qualifications of dubious quality.

However, TDA had not been consulted on Labor’s additional idea to cap VET FEE-HELP student loans at $8,000 per year. TDA expressed concern at the inflexibility this entails for varying levels of course style and scope.

The Australian Labor Party last week released its policy on VET FEE HELP reform.

Unfortunately, students and good quality training providers will be the victims of the unfair training loan caps announced. Labor announced it would impose a price, with no reference to market forces, of $8000 a year on the sector.

Across Australia every day when given a choice students are overwhelmingly choosing to study at private training colleges in their pursuit for innovation, flexibility and best practice.

The amount of $8,000 appears to be a totally random number and without evidence to support its selection. The release unfairly compares the cost of heavily subsidised TAFE training, where all infrastructure costs are paid by State and Territory Governments with those of private training providers.

See

What’s the objection to VET FEE-HELP cap? VET diploma fees almost trebled in a single year…..

The ALP’s proposal to cap VET FEE-HELP loans at $8,000 has been criticised as “arbitrary” and “too low”. People ought to read the policy before criticising it: it actually allows for an exemption when a higher fee can be justified.

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So what’s wrong with that? Providers ought to be allowed to charge unjustifiably high fees and sling the cost off to the taxpayer?

Here’s a couple of facts and figures to ponder.

Course tuition fees have increased from an average of $4,060 in 2009 to $14,018 in 2015 and average loans per student have more than doubled from $4,861 in 2009 to $10,739 in 2015. Most of this growth has occurred since 2012. For example, average tuition fees grew from $5,917 in 2012 to $14,018 in 2015

A number of unscrupulous private colleges have taken advantage of the system, with some colleges referred to police and ASIC, after thousands of students did not complete courses and were left with large debts or qualifications of dubious quality.

However, TDA had not been consulted on Labor’s additional idea to cap VET FEE-HELP student loans at $8,000 per year. TDA expressed concern at the inflexibility this entails for varying levels of course style and scope.

The Australian Labor Party last week released its policy on VET FEE HELP reform.

Unfortunately, students and good quality training providers will be the victims of the unfair training loan caps announced. Labor announced it would impose a price, with no reference to market forces, of $8000 a year on the sector.

Across Australia every day when given a choice students are overwhelmingly choosing to study at private training colleges in their pursuit for innovation, flexibility and best practice.

The amount of $8,000 appears to be a totally random number and without evidence to support its selection. The release unfairly compares the cost of heavily subsidised TAFE training, where all infrastructure costs are paid by State and Territory Governments with those of private training providers.

Labor has proposed an $8000 annual cap on the VET FEE-HELP loan scheme, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to colleges which have targeted vulnerable people, had abysmal completion rates and left thousands of students with huge debts, many of which won’t be repaid.

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Higher education spokesman Kim Carr said the cap would provide protection for students and reduce the call on the budget, as taxpayers are bankrolling unscrupulous private colleges under current ­arrangements. He said:

The average cost to providers is less than $4000, so there is still plenty of room for people to return a profit, but it’d be nothing like what we’re seeing with the $20,000 courses.

There would be an exemption on legitimate high-cost courses such as nursing and engineering following ministerial approval.

The current scheme allows ­students access to $100,000 in study loans, with no annual cap, to be repaid once they begin to earn more than $54,000 per year (although whichever party wins, that threshold is likely to be lowered).

The scheme, which lent $2.9 billion last year, has been gamed by unscrupulous providers.

Labor also intends to introduce specific mechanisms to push ­students into vocational courses that are connected to “national priority” skills. For example, Labor said students at private colleges were paying more than $32,000 for a salon management qualification — the same qualification is provided at a NSW TAFE for $6990.

4 May 2016 | The government has pushed consideration of proposed university reforms, including a 20% cut in funding, out beyond the election, until 1 January 2018. While it has ruled out full fee deregulation, it has released an options paper, to guide a consultation process, canvassing a range of alternative fee measures which would still see substantial fee rises. The 2016 Budget also sees an efficiency dividend of $1.2 billion on legislated dropped but the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program has been cut by $152 million to $553 million over four years. The Office of Learning and Teaching has been abolished, with the resulting $18 million in savings going to TEQSA and the Quality Indicators in Learning and Teaching website. The consultation paper presages changes to FEE-HELP, including dropping the repayment threshold from around $54,000 to something in the range of $40, 000 to $45,000. Over $2.5 billion dollars in unlegislated funding cuts remain on the books….[ MORE]….

4 May 2016 | The federal government has proposed a set of tougher measures to fix the VET FEE-HELP blow-out in a discussion paper released on 29 April. The minister for vocational education and skills senator Scott Ryan said the paper will pave the way for a full redesign of the scheme. The discussion paper catalogues the scale of malpractice by some providers, such as the targeting of low socio-economic status and vulnerable people with inducements to enroll and misleading potential students about their repayment commitments. It proposes a series of measures to improve the integrity of the system including minimum eligibility requirements for VET FEE-HELP, reductions in the lifetime student loan limit, a narrower range of eligible courses, a VET FEE-HELP ombudsman, and payments tied to compliance and student progression….[ READ MORE ]….

4 May 2016 | With international education worth nearly $20 billion to the Australian economy in 2015, the government has provided $12 million in the Budget to fund the National Strategy for International Education 2025 released on 30 April. In three parts, the strategy identifies international educationas one of five “super growth sectors” that will help complete Australia’s transition from a resource-based economy to a modern services and knowledge economy. The strategy aims to help grow the sector by 50% to 720,000 international students by 2025. A separate economic study indicates that international education supports over 130,000 jobs across Australian and delivers substantial indirect benefits to other industries such as tourism and retail….[ READ MORE]….

28 April 2016 | Ivan Brown, who ran one of Australia’s fastest-growing vocational colleges, Phoenix Institute, is being investigated for allegedly forging documents to reap more than $100 million in taxpayer funds. Federal Police search warrants say they have “reasonable grounds for suspecting” Brown, the made false documents or caused them to be made “with the intention to influence the Commonwealth to accept on-line students as genuinely enrolled and participating in training”. Meanwhile a report by the failed company’s administrator claims that the education department owes ACN $253 million for people signed up to courses of study. It also shows that ACN paid its brokers between 15 and 30 % of the value of its courses to the salesmen who recruited students – up to $12,000 per sign up.…[ READ MORE ]…

4 May 2016

As we draw nearer the election, the findings of a recent ANU opinion poll ought to resonate with the politicians, as ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt observes – particularly those given to characterising the “politics of equity” as the “politics of envy” (that being our observation, not Schmidt’s). It is unlikey to though: with the political class, only two polls count – Newspoll and the actual poll on 2 July.

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The ANU School of Politics & International Relations regularly conducts national telephone opinion polls on issues of political and social significance. The latest, the 21st in the series, was on the issue of tax and equity. Should we be worried about governments holding debt? Which areas of spending should have priority, and which can be cut? Should we pay more tax, or less? Is our tax system generally fair?

More Australians favour greater spending on social services than favour reducing taxes. If reducing government debt is the aim, cutting welfare payments is among the least popular options, according to this poll. Australians want more spending directed to health, domestic violence prevention, education, and disability and aged care. They want international companies operating in Australia to pay more tax here, but overall believe our tax system is moderately fair.

On education, around 80% thought the government should spend more money on education, just 2.2% of Australians polled nominated education as “the most important problem” facing Australia today. It ranked thirteen, way behind the economy and jobs (27.2%), just ahead of law and order (1.8) and somewhat ahead of taxation (1.2%) and the budget (1%), although at the levels of granularity involved, these rankings may not be entirely reliable.

Higher education in policy paralysis

What now? asks Gavin Moodie (RMIT) in The Conversation. While across-the-board full fee deregulation has now been dumped by the Coalition, fee deregulation of so-called “flagship courses”, first mooted in the Review of Base Funding in 2011 (with the significant qualification that such fees be capped at plus 50% above what they would otherwise be), looks a hot prospect for a re-elected Coalition government (as does a raising of the cap on other courses by some percentage). That is, of course, still moot: an incoming Labor government would be ostensibly committed to additional public investment in higher education. Whichever side wins will have its hands full, And there’s the likely prospect that whatever the colour of the government, it will not have a majority in the Senate.

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This year’s budget set us back to 2014. In the 2014 budget, the government announced that fees would be deregulated. While this was a toxic political move, it wasn’t toxic enough to be dumped from the 2015 budget, which was another lost year for higher education. While, this year, the government finally ruled out full fee deregulation, it is still contemplating uncapped fees for some courses in its higher education consultation paper. It has also dropped all the worthwhile proposals from 2014, such as extending the demand-driven system to sub-baccalaureate programs..

Salutary lessons from overseas

High caps and deregulated fees

5 May 2016

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As we begin to address again the issues of university funding, the relative student contribution and student loans, it’s salutary to look to overseas experiences. In the England, the Cameron government didn’t fully deregulate fees, it merely tripled them. There are now real questions as to whether students are getting deal (“value fro money”). Meanwhile in the US, home of the $100,000 degree, the affordability of higher education is said to be a “crisis” and is key issue in the forthcoming presidential election campaign, at least from the Democrat side. And we would do well to heed the advice of Swinburne University vice-chancellor Linda Kristjanson

We should be wary of significant changes to the funding model which would detract from the egalitarian quality of Australian higher education.

The crisis of college affordability may not be solvable by the federal government: It has had much less control over tuition than state policies.

The nap pods that popped up recently at the University of California, Berkeley, may be exacerbating a problem they were designed to fix. Intended to help relieve student stress, the egg-like pods cost approximately $100,000 total. A significant student stressor at Cal is rising tuition, and while the pods add up to about $3 per student, paid for in student health fees, the symbolism is galling to students who will graduate with as much debt as the pods cost.

As the editors of The Daily Cal, the university’s student paper, wrote, students aren’t sleep-deprived because of lack of beds but “because of the overwhelming pressures they face.” More naps do nothing for mounting student fees, and the pods appear to ignore deeper structural reasons for student stress: The average Berkeley student leaves the school more than $17,000 in debt (the national average is $29,000, for public and private colleges).

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4 May 2016

A lecture on quantum physics

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During Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in April 2016, a journalist jokingly asked the Prime Minister to explain quantum computing. He called their bluff with a spot-on explanation.

Ivan Brown, who ran one of Australia’s fastest-growing vocational colleges, Phoenix Institute, is being investigated for allegedly forging documents to reap more than $100 million in taxpayer funds.

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Federal Police search warrants say they have “reasonable grounds for suspecting” Brown, the made false documents or caused them to be made “with the intention to influence the Commonwealth to accept on-line students as genuinely enrolled and participating in training”.

Police raided the offices of Phoenix’s parent company, Australian Careers Network, in April in search of evidence of criminal behaviour. It seized documents relating to students.

Brown denies any wrongdoing.

They can get a search warrant for murder weapons if they like; it doesn’t mean a murder has been committed. They can put anything they want in a search warrant, it doesn’t mean any crime has been committed. It’s not proof of anything.

The details of the warrant came in an administrator’s report from Ferrier Hodgson, which was appointed to the company in March after the Commonwealth government froze funding to ACN.

The report shows the administrators believe that the education department owes ACN $253 million for people signed up to courses of study.

But the administration is complicated by five different legal cases, in addition to the criminal case. In one, the government is fighting Phoenix’s claim for a portion of the money its claimed to be owed. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is also in court alleging the company was guilty of false, misleading and unconscionable conduct in recruiting students. The ACCC is seeking repayment of $106 million.

The administrators’ report shows that ACN paid its brokers between 15 and 30% of the value of its courses to the salesmen who recruited students. More than 905 of students were signed to double diplomas – which gave them a $36,000 debt, suggesting brokers could earn almost $12,000 per sign-up.

With international education worth $19.6 billion to the Australian economy in 2015, the government has provided $12 million in the Budget to fund the National Strategy for International Education 2025 released on 30 April.

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The strategy actually has 3 parts:

The National Strategy for International Education 2025itself, which reflects a “whole-of-sector” approach and sets out a 10-year plan for further developing Australia’s position as a global leader in education and training. The national strategy is based around three pillars: “strengthening the fundamentals” (including improvements to student services and quality assurance), “making transformative partnerships” (which focuses on links at home and abroad, alumni networks, and visa policy), and “competing globally.”

The Australian International Education 2025 (AIE2025) market development roadmap, which is the product of both extensive consultations within the sector and research from Deloitte Access Economics. It provides a 10-year market development framework for Australia’s education exports, including “game-changing” strategies to build scalable, collaborative networks of education providers, attract capital to fuel the sector’s expansion, and target key markets abroad.

In launching the strategy, minister for tourism and international education senator Richard Colbeck highlighted that international education has been identified as one of five “super growth sectors” that will help complete Australia’s transition from a resource-based economy to a modern services and knowledge economy:

To achieve this, we must build on our existing education, training and research strengths, to deliver high quality, innovative products and services to students that meet or exceed their expectations. This will enable us to withstand increasing competition and sustainably grow our market share, whilst maintaining the quality for which we are renowned.

The strategy was described as “a step in the right direction” by members of the former Coordinating Council for International Education, who were consulted in the early stages of the strategy’s development.

Accompanying the strategy is a report by Deloitte, The value of international education to Australia, commissioned to raise awareness of the importance of international education to Australia. The report identifies nearly $1 billion in additional benefits that international education delivers to the Australian economy, beyond the $19.6 billion in export income already reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Deloitte indicates that international education supports over 130,000 jobs across Australian and delivers substantial indirect benefits to other industries such as tourism and retail.